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Created by Dr. Ted Baehr, founder, publisher and executive producer of MOVIEGUIDE® and founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, and Dr. Jack Templeton, the primary purpose of the prize is to further the influence of moral and spiritual values within the film and television industries. Seeking to promote a spiritually uplifting, redemptive worldview, MOVIEGUIDE® announces the Kairos Prize that will help inspire first-time and beginning screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining, spiritually uplifting scripts that result in a greater increase in either man’s love or understanding of God.

Deadline/Entry Fees

Expired. Previous Deadline: 11/15/2018

Rules

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are many screenwriting competitions that honor wonderful, exciting and entertaining scripts, and some that honor moral scripts, but the Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays endeavors to encourage the production of feature films that are wholesome, uplifting and inspirational, and which result in a greater increase in either man's love or understanding of the one true Creator Triune God who came in the flesh and gave his life and was resurrected to save all mankind. Our intention in setting up the Guidelines and Rules of Content is to clearly define the competition so that you will be successful in your submissions. A word of warning: This competition is not for the nominalist, occult, new age, or other non-Judeo-Christian spirituality. Please read and follow these guidelines and content rules. Submissions that do not follow them may be disqualified.

In selecting the winners of the contest, judges consider not only a script’s entertainment value and craftsmanship, but also whether or not the script in question is wholesome, uplifting, inspirational, spiritual, and if it teaches lessons in ethics and morality.

Furthermore, the judges consider whether the script is primarily spiritual, rather than merely humanitarian, and whether it resulted in a dramatic increase in either man's love or understanding of God. Considering this, the judges will decide whether the script communicates God's wisdom and infinite love in new, effective, and creative ways, thereby helping people understand the relationship of the one true Creator Triune God.

The script must be suitable for a G and PG rating and should be entirely free of foul language.

In this regard, is it okay to have a spiritually uplifting dramatic script which hints, for example, that the person became a criminal or prostitute but repented by finding Christ? Of course.

The script may be allegorical but must refer implicitly or explicitly to Christian and/or biblical principles, values, virtues, and/or refer specifically to the Bible, the Triune God of the Bible, and/or Jesus. To define this more clearly, judges will take into account the criteria that Movieguide® uses to evaluate films and television programs. These criteria include looking at each script:

Aesthetically by looking at the artistic value of the script, and by looking at how well the script is written.

Emotively by looking at how it captures and amuses the audience as entertainment and amusement.

Semantically by looking at the individual elements and their meanings, just as many parents do.

Syntactically by looking at how the elements come together and how the characters relate to each other, just as many teenagers and young adults do.

Propositionally by looking at what the script is communicating, as summarized in its premise.

Generically by comparing it to other scripts in its genre.

Thematically by looking at the themes that are present in the script.

Morally by looking at its moral perspective and content.

Biblically by looking at the biblical perspective and principles in the script.

Systematically by looking at how the script relates to other scripts.

Intellectually by looking at how the script fulfills its goals and premise.

Sociologically by looking at how the script relates to culture and society.

Politically by looking at the political perspective of the script.

Cognitively by looking at the age group to whom the script is marketed, the age group for whom it is suitable, and how it will impact a particular age group.

Psychologically by looking at how the script deals with mind and soul.

Historically by looking at how accurate the script is in presenting history.

Sexually by looking at how the script deals with sex and sexual relationships.

Philosophically by looking at the philosophical perspective and worldview of the script.

Ontologically by looking at how the script deals with the nature of being.

Epistemologically by looking at how the script deals with the nature of knowing.

Spiritually by looking at how the script deals with God, faith, and religion.

The script must adhere to the short form of the Motion Picture Code:The basic dignity and value of human life shall be respected and upheld. Restraint shall be exercised in portraying the taking of life. Evil, sin, crime, and wrongdoing shall not be justified. Detailed and protracted acts of brutality, cruelty, physical violence, torture, and abuse, shall not be presented. Indecent or undue exposure of the human body shall not be presented. Illicit sex relationships shall not be justified. Intimate sex scenes violating common standards of decency shall not be portrayed. Restraint and care shall be exercised in presentations dealing with sex aberrations. Obscene speech, gestures, or movements shall not be presented. Undue profanity shall not be presented. Religion shall not be demeaned. Words or symbols contemptuous of racial, religious, or national groups, shall not be used so as to incite bigotry or hatred. Excessive cruelty to animals shall not be portrayed and animals shall not be treated inhumanely.

Awards

The Kairos Prize not only offers a substantial cash prize of $15,000 for both new and established screenwriters, but it gets your screenplay into the hands of top studio executives and production houses looking to purchase inspiring scripts.

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Movieguide Names Kairos Contest Winners

North Star by William Gebby has been named the winner of the Kairos Prize for Beginning Screenwriters. The script is about an emotionally cold Quakeress who learns to love after she rescues an eight year-old runaway slave. The Kairos Pro Prize for Established Screenwriters has been awarded to Alexandra Boylan for her scirpt Switched, which is about a woman who is tired of turning the other cheek. When she prays that her nemesis, the Queen Bee of social media, would know what it’s like to walk a day in her shoes, her prayer is answered in an unexpected way when they switch identities.

This year’s finalists are (in alphabetical order):

Kairos Prize for Beginning Screenwriters

Angels and Attorneys by Lisa London
Logline: On the brink of death, a dishonest lawyer must rectify a shady business deal and his estrangement from God and family while butting heads with an angel who doesn’t like him.

Bodey’s Bible by Ernestina Juarez
Logline: An American slave joins Mexico’s struggle for independence after the leader of that struggle helps Bodey understand the meaning of Jesus’s teaching to “resist not evil.”

Christmas Forever Home by Jody Thompson
Logline: A last-chance foster child and an abandoned military dog must outwit a notorious pet thief, or give up hope of being adopted together, into a loving forever home.

FISH by Richard Grahn
Logline: A Father wants to rekindle his relationship with his son after being absent from his live for ten years, tries to bond through the sport of high school wrestling

Hammering it Home by Lesley Ann McDaniel
Logline: A flirtatious barista fakes her religious convictions to attract the leader of a Christian affordable housing ministry. Now she must win his heart before he realizes she’s not really a believer.

The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry
Logline: In World War 2, a captured American pilot resolves to escape the Germans who use him as a guinea pig in a secret experiment.

No Room at the Inn by Mark Drinnenberg
Logline: A thoughtless, arrogant, and self-absorbed company president learns humility when he is forced to spend Christmas Eve night in a barn.

The Piano Gospel by Tony Gonzalez
Logline: When a town’s wealthy magnate dies, he instructs his heir to have a piano repaired by the man he most wronged in life.

Skirting the Naughty List by Christopher Paige
Logline: The Naughty need a good lawyer. (The Nice can lie for themselves.)

Kairos Pro Prize for Established Screenwriters

Appointments with Heaven by Brian Baugh
Logline: A true story of a country doctor, his struggles with faith and doubt, and his amazing healing encounters with the hereafter.

Good Again by Jeanne Dukes
Logline: When a Texas high school star quarterback fails his team as his successful father struggles with a failing marriage, they fight discouragement by making a pact to overcome the improbable od

The Inheritance by Alexandra Boylan
Logline: Kasey a washed up rock star, returns home, along with her estranged siblings, to bury her mother and claim her inheritance, only to discover that the deed to the entire estate is hidden on the property and the first one to find it…. inherits everything. As Kasey races her siblings, the winner takes all event serves as an ultimate illustration that the only true inheritance is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Trapped by George Escobar co-written by Ken Carpenter
Logline: The true story of Anita Dittman, a Jewish-Christian teenager who escapes twice from Nazi prison camps in her unrelenting drive to reunite with her mother at Theresienstadt, a fortress death camp hundreds of miles away in Czechoslovakia.